How artificial intelligence is shaping our future

Can I still wear an oversized watch?

TV shows to look forward to in 2018

The world may be going to pot, but at least we’ve got some decent TV, right? From Alan Partridge’s triumphant return to the BBC, to the final hurrah of one of the best dramas in years, via a sci-fi reboot, the Coen Brothers and more judicial misdeeds in Manitowoc County, here are the TV shows you should be looking out for in 2018

If Peaky Blinders reintroduced the short back and sides, Britannia could see us all smearing blue woad on our faces. About as "period" as a period drama can get, this swords-and-sandals ten-parter – written by the mighty Jez Butterworth – turns the clock back to AD43 as the Roman Empire sailed beyond the known world (across the English Channel) to annex our own little island. But it’s not all unbridled raping and pillaging, as they soon come up against wild Celtic tribes out to stop the straight road obsessives’ jolly conquest. Spoiler alert: we lose.

Given the number or reboots going on at the moment, it’s almost a welcome relief that one is coming of a show that hasn’t been touched (well, aside from a diabolical 1998 film adaptation) for half a century – meaning that only your grandparents are likely to complain that it’s not as good as before. The kitschy, campy Sixties sci-fi classic about the Robinson family of space colonists gets a modern update, which will likely strip it of the original’s near-comedic innocence. If done well, this could follow in the footsteps of Battlestar Galactica, which was remade into TV gold.

All hail the return of Norwich’s finest! Twenty years after he famously smacked its commissioning editor in the face with a big cheese, Alan Gordon Partridge returns to the broadcaster he loves to hate (or gets back on “the BBC gravy train”). This time, however, the former face of Hamilton’s Water Breaks has been given arguably his most important role so far: becoming the “voice of hard Brexit", reaching out to the Little Englanders the BBC is concerned it has alienated. Not much else is known about the show, but with that premise and the genuine awesomeness of Mid-Morning Matters it could end up being the greatest television series ever made.

After more than two decades as the darlings of the indie film world, the Coen brothers make their first imprint on the small screen with predictable levels of excitement. James Franco, Zoe Kazan and our own Ralph Ineson (Finchy!) are among the cast for this Western anthology, consisting of six separate stories set around the American frontier. Tim Blake Nelson, who you may recognise from the Coens’ O Brother, Where Art Thou?, plays the titular Buster Scruggs. Little else is known about the show, but there’s likely to be a whole lot of noise when this comes out.

The documentary series that turned every lounge-dweller into a cynical private investigator with a specialist focus on Manitowoc County, Wisconsin. The last we heard, Brendan Dassey’s conviction has been overturned, but the still incarcerated Steven Avery could use his nephew’s case to help his appeal. The second season of Making A Murderer is set to dive straight back into the US criminal justice system, possibly focussing on Avery’s new legal team and the search for an alternate suspect for the 2005 killing of Teresa Halbach. Pay attention, because this is likely to be a topic of heated dinner-party conversations. In the meantime, check out the equally awesome spoof, American Vandal (also on Netflix).

We’re not going to lie, House Of Cards lost its way somewhere around season four (why couldn’t it just follow the BBC original and end after three?). But its sixth – and final – outing has our interest for one main reason: the departure of Kevin Spacey. With Netflix having booted its Emmy-winning lead star from the show last year, House Of Cards will turn its back-stabbing, power-hungry attention from Frank to Claire Underwood. It’s something that should have happened years ago (and they kind of did it anyway at the end of season 5). The question is, how will they write off Frank? Lost at sea? Eaten alive by cats? Accidentally brutally chopped his head off while combing his hair (stolen from Blackadder).

We’re going to be pretty damn sad to see this consistently awesome Cold War spy series come to an end after six seasons. But end The Americans must and we’ll be swallowing cyanide capsules if it departs with a whimper. Will Keri Russell and Matthew Rhys’ KGB officers make it out alive? Will their friendly FBI agent over the road ever figure out why the drain is constantly blocked with wigs and fake moustaches? Will we ever figure out how to juggle being both a successful travel agent and America’s most-wanted Russian sleeper cell? If only the producers had brought the show up to the present day, it could have taken a look at Russian dabblings into the current US presidency. So sad.

Who says the BBC hasn’t got the deep pockets to still compete with the streaming big boys? OK, this was made alongside Netflix (who have it outside the UK). Whereas the 2004 film epic was more about Brad Pitt flexing his bronzed biceps, this big-budget swords-and-sandals retelling of the famed ancient history lesson will focus on the illicit love affair between Paris and Helen that led to the Trojan War. It’s been written by The Night Manager’s David Farr, which bodes well. And it’ll be worth watching simply to see the transformation of David Threlfall from his most famous TV incarnation, Shameless’ booze hound Frank Gallagher, to King Priam.

Based on a Norwegian series, this absurdist dark comedy has nabbed two of the most in-demand actors around in Emma Stone and Jonah Hill, plus the hotter-than-hot director Cary Fukunaga (True Detective, Beasts Of No Nation). A man in a mental institution enjoys an exciting life of adventure and romance – at times a star sportsman, war hero and a cowboy, often living in a mansion staffed by bikini-clad women. But there’s only one problem: it’s all in his head.

Beau Willimon – who created House Of Cards and led the show until season 4 (essentially when it began to jump the shark) – is getting about as far away from the White House as possible. Mars, to be exact. The First, which has already enlisted Sean Penn in his first major TV role alongside Designated Survivor’s Natascha McElhone, follows the first human colonisation mission to the red planet, looking at not just the team of astronauts, but their families and the ground team on Earth. Anyone hoping for Total Recall and three-boobed aliens should probably think again.